Professor in Biological Anthropology, Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology, University of Cape Town
Professor Victoria Gibbon is a biological anthropologist who joined the Department of Human Biology’s Division of Clinical Anatomy and Biological Anthropology in 2016. She is a well published NRF rated scientist. She is highly engaged in research with Forensic Pathology Services, and the South African Police services to assist with active medico-legal death investigations and to improve forensic identification in the Western Cape. She leads a forensic taphonomy research group who are assisting to establish locally relevant standards of time since death estimation. Additionally, she leads a transdisciplinary team of researchers in the Western Cape Cold Case consortium to assist with improving investigative outcomes and forensic identification more generally. She is also actively involved in bioarchaeology research to better understand South African history and heritage. In addition to her research and teaching portfolios she is curator of the UCT Human Skeletal Repository. This role has led her to initiate restitution processes at UCT to return unethically obtained skeletonised individuals and to establishing updated procedures of access and stewardship of skeletonised individuals at UCT. Her research shows an interest in ethical practice in relation to the rights and protection of the deceased, and discrepancies in the national heritage and health legislation that govern research on the recent and ancient deceased persons.
